Visits II
by SuguiChan
Summary: After WW II is over a broken Japan is slowly recovering as former allies/enemies pay him a visit. Edit: since some readers put this in their Story Alert thank you so much I'm posting the next drabbles as chapters here. Chap4: China!
1. Italy

**Title:** Visits 2  
**Character(s):** Italy and Japan for this part  
**Rating:** K+  
**Warnings:** I'm really not good at writing Italy although I love him to pieces, wah...  
**Summary:** After WW II, Japan is quietly recovering. This time, it's Italy who comes for a visit.  
**Disclaimer:** Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz.

* * *

Italy, as opposed to Germany, didn't seem affected by war. He still had that silly smile plastered on his face and still greeted anyone – man or woman – with embarrassing hugs and kisses.

"You will be good as new in no time, you'll see," Feliciano nodded enthusiastically at his own words, "America is a good guy, he promised he'll take care of you despite everything that happened, didn't he? And he's super rich, I bet he's paying a fortune for this hospital room and he hired the best doctors to treat you!"

Curiously, Japan didn't feel offended or even annoyed by Italy's praise of their former enemy. Feliciano looked happy because the war was over and not one bit worried about the fact that he was on the losing side. For some reason Kiku found this endearing. The poor guy was not a warrior, never was, never will. He was always too much in love with life to court death.

_And he is right. Death brings you nothing. _

Suddenly, Feliciano became serious and blushed, gently kissing his friend's forehead.

"Don't worry, Kiku. Now they say horrible things about us… you should see what they are saying about Germany… but in the end, they will understand that all we did was carrying out our duties. And this is important, isn't it? Ludwig always says that duty comes first… Personally I think he exaggerates but oh, well…"

Japan smiled, but it was so sad that it made him look all the more gloomy.

_I wish I were that carefree. Then, my sins wouldn't haunt me. Hatred wouldn't eat my insides. Regret and shame wouldn't weigh like the world on my shoulders._

Italy hugged him goodbye and only then could Kiku see the scar on the other man's neck, barely visible under his shirt collar.

So he was wrong after all. In a war like that, no one is left unscathed.

* * *

_**Author Note: **_Hope this one's better than the previous. Thanks to my wonderful beta, Gala. Sorry for disappearing!


	2. England

**Title:** Visits 3  
**Character(s):** England and Japan for this part  
**Rating:** K+  
**Warnings:** none.  
**Summary:** After WW II, Japan is quietly recovering. Now, England comes. **  
Disclaimer:** Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz.

* * *

England came one sunny afternoon, bringing a bunch of red roses. Ever the impeccable gentleman, he greeted Japan with just the right amount of warmth – well, maybe a tad more to make it clear that since the war was over, there should be no grudges between them.

"It's a splendid day out there, and they have a decent garden at the back of this building… let me take you there, I'm pretty sure you will love it." Arthur easily lifted Kiku, skillfully managing to avoid the wounded parts of the thin, weakened body and placing him on the wheelchair. Despite his surprised yelp, Japan didn't feel any real discomfort at the brief physical contact. Although England was not a big man, there was great strength and something extremely reassuring in his arms. Besides, they had been pretty close in that other life, so far away in past, before war.

It was the first time in weeks that Japan had left his room. The sun and the cool breeze felt strange on his overly sensitive skin. The sweet scent of blossoming flowers was almost overwhelming after months of smoke, sweat, blood, charred flesh, and chemicals. He shivered.

"I'm sorry, are you feeling cold?" Without waiting for an answer, Arthur took off his blazer and placed it on Kiku's shoulders. The natural tone in his voice sounded too rehearsed in its ease, too perfect to be real.

_It's not going to work, Arthur-san. We hurt each other in ways too terrible to pretend that nothing happened. _

But then, those green eyes were staring at him with honest hope, plain and simple, stripped of all his cunning. How could Japan say what was in his mind when England looked at him like that?

A calloused hand pulled his pinky finger.

"This is how Japanese people make promises, right?" there was a shadow of a smile as the two of them remembered a certain night centuries ago, the beginning of their friendship, and Arthur struggling (and failing) to pronounce the words correctly.

England wrapped his own pinky around Japan's.

"Promise you'll never try anything that fooli…I mean, rash… again."

_Losers cannot say no to the victors, can they?_

Kiku just nodded.

_Yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara hari senbon nomasu, yubi kitta. (*)_

_

* * *

_

_(*) Finger cut promise; if you lie may you swallow a hundred needles and cut off your finger._


	3. China

**Title:** Visits 4  
**Character(s):** China and Japan for this part  
**Rating:** T  
**Warnings:** Touchy subject, angsty, may be historically inaccurate.  
**Summary:** After WW II, Japan is quietly recovering. It's time for China to visit. **  
Disclaimer:** Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz.

* * *

**CHINA**

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China silently entered the room and sat on a chair at Japan's bedside. He ignored the younger nation's attempt to greet him properly; he didn't even look at the other's face.

Three times Yao had come, stayed for a while, and gone without uttering a word. Three times Kiku had cried silently – and so, so discreetly no one would ever notice – after that.

"_I hate him."_

"_I understand, my friend.__ But he is your little brother, da? I do not believe he would have raised his sword against you if it weren't for… external influences."_

Ivan's words, so softly whispered in a warm night – one of many they have been secretly spending together - were still ringing and dancing in his mind.

"_Wasn't it America who forced little Kiku to open his ports? He was content with having relations only with you until Alfred came…"_

Russia was right, Yao thought. Centuries ago, Kiku had been his and only his. _"I do not wish to trade with anybody else but China",_ how many times had Japan declared whenever a western nation tried to establish relations with him? But then, America came with his powerful ships and forced himself on Kiku.

"_Wasn't it England who seduced him into thinking that Western ways were better than your ways? Wasn't it Germany who poisoned his mind with Nazi ideas?"_

_Wasn't it?_

Yao briefly closed his eyes and sighed at the memory of Ivan's skin (white, oh, so sickening white but still welcoming, still hypnotizing, _snake, he's a snake, cold and lethal but full of riches in his insides, if only Yao could snatch some_).

"_I am not saying you should forget what he did to you, my komrade… Japan is a little corrupt monster indeed… but you still love him, don't you? What really hurts is not the torture, not the rape, not the killing… what really hurts is that Kiku, of all people, was the one who did those to you."_

Japan wished his once brother-tutor-enemy would go away. He could understand hatred and despise. He could understand if Yao never came for a visit, or if he came only to accuse, to mock, to humiliate him. This is what happens to losers. But _**that**_…

That freezing silence. That painful stillness. That… _nothingness_.

It made Kiku feel small and despicable and insignificant and horribly _**wrong**_. It made him want to run away and curl up in a dark corner and cry. His eyes were already watering. When had he become so weak?

_No, no, no, not in front of him, not in front of Yao, too much shame, no…_Kiku felt nauseating panic welling in his chest.

Yao finally turned to look straight at that pale, blank face he had come to hate more than anything else.

And then, he _saw it._

Overwhelming guilt. Pain. Loneliness. Helplessness.

Vulnerability.

_Now is the time, __now that he is defeated and alone and weak, reach out to him_, Ivan's mellifluous, sing-song voice was echoing in Yao's mind_, swallow your hatred and hold him. Make him become one with you. Then, you will have your revenge._

Yao raised a shaky hand. Could he really do it? Could he even touch Japan when the agonizing screams and the _stench_ of millions deaths were so fresh in his mind?

"Hey!"

China promptly recoiled at the always-too-loud voice.

Alfred stepped in and sat on the bed, flinging one arm around Kiku's thin shoulders. He smiled brightly and for a brief moment his impeccably white teeth seemed a bit too bare, just like a hungry dog before his plate of food.

"Am I interrupting something?"


End file.
